Here's to you Mrs Johnson

In the British PM’s inner circle she is both loved and despised, but just how much power does the newlywed and recently pregnant Carrie Johnson wield at Number 10?

- WILLIAM LANGLEY

Inside 10 Downing Street, the elegant Westminster townhouse that serves as the heart of Britain’s government, staffers were crisis-fighting on all fronts. COVID was raging, a painstakingly negotiated Brexit deal was unravelling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had just quit over a personality clash, and from down the corridor came a cry of despair: “She’s completely out of control. It’s costing me tens of thousands. I can’t afford it”.

The voice – unmistakable in its tenor and plumminess – belonged to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose trademark ebullience seemed to have suddenly deserted him. Less than a year earlier, Boris, 57, had stormed to a landslide election victory and moved into the spacious prime-ministerial apartment with his glamorous fiancée, 33-year-old Carrie Symonds, the daughter of a well-connected PR executive.

According to aides, Carrie was horrified by the drab décor and “department store” furnishings of the couple’s new quarters, and after demanding a complete refurbishment went off to consult London’s most fashionable interior designer, Lulu Lytle. It was when the gold-inlaid wallpaper at $1500-a-roll started going up that Boris allegedly had his meltdown.

The finished job featured stripped wood floors, candlelit nooks and brightly coloured natural fabrics that echoed the rustic boho chic of Carrie’s favourite West End club. Of the estimated $375,000 cost, Boris discovered he could charge the government less than a fifth. Already in the throes of an expensive divorce, the PM pleaded with Helen MacNamara, the cabinet’s head of ethics, for a break. No deal.